AUBURN – The Brunswick Dragons are good at stretching defenses, so good, in fact, that those defenses usually come apart at the seams.
Edward Little’s defense never actually came unraveled in Tuesday night’s KVAC South matchup, but its offense did just long enough for Brunswick to pick up a 65-60 win.
The Red Eddies (2-1) went scoreless for a two-minute stretch in the fourth quarter to give the Dragons (3-0) the opening they needed for a comeback.
Jordan Kelly and Corey Underwood combined for eight 3-pointers, including back-to-back treys in the fourth quarter that gave Brunswick the lead for good.
“They have three great shooters. We knew that and thought we were prepared for it. But saying you’re prepared for it and actually going out and doing it, especially when you have to honor a good post player inside is tough,” said EL coach Mike Adams.
Underwood finished with 18 points, Kelly 12. Brunswick made nine of 16 shots from behind the three-point stripe, but Travis O’Dell kept the Eddies’ defense honest with 15 points in the paint. Troy Barnies led EL with 25 points and nine rebounds.
Brunswick, which trailed by as much as eight early in the second half, battled back to tie the game at 47 on a Justin Dionne layup off an EL turnover with 6:24 to go. Kyle Giguerre gave the Eddies their last lead with a jumper from the left elbow with 5:50 left.
That proved to be EL’s last field goal before the Dragons reeled off a 12-2 run. Point guard Kyle Dwyer (five assists) got it going by forcing the Eddies’ defense to collapse on his penetration and then kicking it out to Kelly and Underwood for their 3-pointers that put the Dragons up 53-49 with 5:10 left.
“I think the key was we worked on our spacing,” Brunswick coach Todd Hanson said. “We have three pretty good perimeter shooters, and that seemed to give those guys better looks. Dwyer did a great job of penetrating and pitching, and our guys finally got in a nice rhythm offensively.”
Just as the Dragons were finding their rhythm, the Eddies were losing theirs, missing six consecutive shots before Kyle Philbrook (seven points) finally got them untracked with a trey that pulled them within five with 2:39 left.
“They did a good job of being patient, whereas we didn’t do a good job of being patient,” Adams said. “We shot too many first-pass shots.”
EL made a run with under two minutes left, pulling to within 61-60 on a Cam Leary hoop with 33 seconds left. Underwood hit both ends of a one-and-one to make it a three-point game with 25 seconds to go. Philbrook had a chance to tie it with a good look on a 3-point attempt, but the shot rolled out. Justin Dionne pulled down the rebound and hit the front end of a one-and-one to make it a two possession game and essentially clinch it with 11 seconds left.
“In this league, every game’s going to go 32 minutes this year,” said Hanson, whose team has won its games by an average of just over five points. “There’s just a tremendous amount of parity.”
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